Three exoplanets where life would exist

The universe is unimaginably vast and continues to be. So here we are uncertain if we are alone. In this post, I want to talk about three exoplanets that might give us hope that we are not alone.

(Before diving into them, know that all of these planets are in the habitable zones of their stars, meaning liquid water could potentially exist there. However, I want to clarify that we cannot say for certain that liquid water definitely exists.)

Kepler-186f 

Discovered by Elisa Quintana on 17 April 2014, Kepler 186f is an exoplanet 580 light years away from us. A year there is just 130 Earth days. As mentioned above it is in the habitable zone of its star. But to know for certain, we need information about its atmosphere. The planet is too far for us to be able to acquire any knowledge about its atmosphere.

Also, planets, Kepler-186b, c, d and e are all tidally locked, (meaning one side of the planet always faces the planet.) The chances of Kepler-186f being tidally locked are about 50%. 

Based on all the knowledge that we have, the planet does not have a tilt like that of our Earth. This means that there will be no seasons like those here on Earth. However, it could have a significant tilt if there is a planet revolving between Kepler-186f and Kepler-186e we haven't yet discovered.

Kepler 22b

Kepler 22b, an exoplanet 600 light years away from us, is another planet that is in the habitable zone of its star. It is about 2.4 times the size of our Earth!

The planet takes about 290 Earth days to complete its orbit. 

If it had an atmosphere similar to the Earth's, its temperature would likely be 22°C. 

So, it stands as a pretty strong candidate, but we are uncertain about the composition of this planet (more than the others actually). We don't know if it is rocky planet or a gas giant. 

HD40307 g

Exoplanet HD40397 g is a part of the HD40307 star system. It is about 42 light years away from home. Now this is significantly closer to the other planets we discussed above. But 42 light years is still really far away (3.974 × 10¹⁴ km). 

Anyways, it is a super Earth as its mass is 7.1 times more than that of our Earth. The planet takes 197.8 Earth days to complete its orbit. 

And it is most likely not tidally locked, which is a plus. 

But that is it for this post. If I missed anything or if you want me to write about a topic, please comment down below. See you next Sunday.